A Big Idea for a North East Powerhouse

VONNE (Voluntary Organisations Network North East) hosted a discussion about devolution in the North East at their AGM last Friday. The speakers (Ed Cox, Lord Shipley, Simon Henig and Sue Jeffrey) reflected on a possible North East Powerhouse. Our local councils seem to think they cannot afford to miss out on the offer of more local decision-making power and some money from Westminster, even though it comes with government's insistence on a locally elected mayor, possibly for the whole region.

One of the speakers suggested the Powerhouse could ensure all north east employers pay the Minimum Wage, but that will be a national requirement by 2020 anyway so what would be the point? Several spoke of the opportunity to join up police, fire and ambulance services into a single 'Blue Light' service but that's unlikely to catch the public imagination. We do have more of a regional identity than other parts of England but is that enough to overcome our local differences?

The trouble seems to be that the idea of a North East Powerhouse is not an exciting one for the electorate and that is a democratic problem in a mayoral election. Politicians would not want a repeat of the Police and Crime Commissioners election when just 15% of people voted.

So here's my big idea to get us all behind a north east Powerhouse - what if we were to make our region the best in the country for children? Just think what that would mean - good quality affordable family homes; flexible, family friendly employment policies; health advice and encouragement for parents so that every baby has the best start in life; support for families with small children in Children's Centres, childcare and community groups; good schools hand-in-hand with employers so that school leavers move into apprenticeships, jobs or college; neighbourhoods where children can play safely; community activities for young people run by good role models.

Businesses bring employment to places where people can have a good way of life, and that is what being the best place in the country for children would produce. The NECC would encourage business to relocate here not only because of our landscape, coast, cities, history, culture and transport links but also because of what we offered for families and how we trained our young people for work. Families would want to move here too and our young people would not feel compelled to move away to find work.

So what about it? The north east - best place in the UK for children!

Staying relevant

Charities don't last as long as Children North East (founded 1891) without adapting to the changing needs of children. Last September we started a thorough review of everything we do by asking our staff what they thought we should be doing. Since then we've examined our strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats that face us. We have also considered the external environment, done some future gazing and discussed our finances. We have summarised all the discussion in our Strategic Plan for 2015-2019 which has been agreed by our board of trustees and shared with all our staff this week.

Back in 1891 our mission was 'To hold out a helping hand to poor children in Newcastle and Gateshead', as one of the early trustees put it: to give poor children 'a hand up not a hand out'. The aims of the charity have changed many times since then and we have redefined them again in today's language. Our mission now is for all north east children and young people to grow up healthy and happy and we will promote the rights of children and young people.

Children North East has always been a service organisation and will continue to strengthen and empower children, young people in families, in schools and in the community; but we will also improve what other workers and organisations do through training, demonstrating good practice and influencing their policies and practice. We will work in partnership with other organisations who share our aims and values in order to reach as many north east children and young people as possible.

Listening to children and young people and hearing the things that concern them will be at the heart of everything we do and we will find ways to hear as many of them as possible, not only the ones we currently work with. To make sure that children's rights really do drive everything we do, we will adopt the 7 principles of the Unicef Child Rights Partners approach in all our work.

There are some 'wicked issues' facing children and young people in the north east today, for example child poverty, the silent epidemic of mental ill-health, child sexual exploitation, progression from school into work to name just a few. At the same time public services are retreating from serving some needs, for example the emphasis on 'early intervention' (which actually means helping families in the years before children start school) means there is much less help for families of school age children unless they are being abused - just ask any teacher.

I believe this is the time for organisations like Children North East that are independent of public services to step up to the mark and take the lead in serving the needs of todays children and young people.

In Harmony

Yesterday I was enthralled by a concert given by the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Hawthorn Primary School, a collaboration facilitated by Sage Gateshead called In Harmony. From the first moment of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings which made the hair on my neck stand up; through Year 5 strings; the wind band, brass band to everyone performing part of 'A Tuba Train' specially written by Stephen Deazley from an idea by Year 6, the concert thrilled the audience of proud parents.

For the last three years every child starting Hawthorn Primary school in Elswick has been given a classical musical instrument and the whole school has been learning to play together alongside professional Royal Northern Sinfonia musicians. Headteacher Judy Cowgill explained excitedly that it gives the children 'experiences they would never otherwise have'.

As well as Newcastle, there are In Harmony projects in deprived areas of 4 other English cities all jointly funded by the Department for Education and Arts Council England. In Harmony seeks to transform the lives of children, young people and their communities through the power of music making.

You could see that happening before your eyes. Boys and girls of all races and faiths making music together listened to by their parents. So much to be proud of, so much to talk about at home and in the neighbourhood, so many new experiences for adults as well as children, admiration and encouragement from parents and teachers alike.

Such a wonderful idea and such a crazy idea - 'let's give a quality musical instrument to every child in a primary school in a deprived part of the city, teach them to play together and get a professional orchestra to play alongside them.' It takes passion and vision to turn a mad idea like that into a reality that works.

The founders of Children North East had a crazy idea - 'let's take a couple of hundred children from the poorest parts of town to the seaside for a day; and let's do it for different children every week during the spring, summer and autumn every year so they get healthier from the fresh air and sunshine.' With the benefit of hindsight its common sense, but at the time some would have thought it madness, ridiculous, impossible. Yet it happened every year from 1891 to the 1930s.

We need crazy ideas in the north east today. Crazy ideas for employment, for housing, for food, for the environment, for children, for young people, for families, for neighbourhoods, for society, for the joy of living.

Families United

Last Friday I spent the day 'on the shop floor' with some of our families and parenting staff at the end of an intensive course of work with several families - parents and young people. We call the course 'Families United' and it runs every day for a whole week during school holidays. The whole family is invited to come along. In the morning session the parents meet in one room while the children are in another room. At lunchtime everyone joins together with the staff for sandwiches followed by fun activities for the families all together in the afternoon.

The morning sessions for parents include some teaching for example about brain development of children, what children and young people need from their family to grow up well and parenting skills but also time to share and reflect on their experiences of growing up, how they learnt about parenting, what it means to them to be a parent, what they feel about their children and so on. If you've ever been on an intensive training week (on any subject) you will know that they can be a very powerful experience.

Meanwhile the children are engaged in creative activities with staff while talking about similar topics. Being so closely involved with the families, the staff can encourage parents and children to try out new ways of relating to each other and to praise attempts to be different. At the end of each day the staff have a debriefing sharing observations and understandings of children and parents so that everyone can encourage and reinforce changed behaviours.

Last Friday was the final day so I was privileged to sit in on the final sessions and hear parents share the things they had learned that they intend to keep going. At lunch it was evident that relationships between some family members had begun to heal during the week. After lunch the staff gave everyone a gift as well as framed photographs taken during the week and certificates to congratulate everyone on completing the week.

One thing which struck me was the importance of respect in family life. Families are held together by very strong attachments and children rely absolutely on their parent(s) for survival until they are old enough to fend for themselves. Yet we cannot take those ties for granted, it is too easy to verbally abuse and continually put down those closest to us just because they are there. Civility and mutual respect are the oil that enables families to meet the needs of everyone in the family, which is after all what families are for.

Decent jobs

On Friday I was interviewed by journalist Tom Esslemont for BBC Radio 4 news about poverty in the north east. The point made by everyone he spoke to was that there are not enough full-time, well-paid, long-term jobs in the north east. Today the front page of The Journal picked up on the same theme. The Trussell Trust (which runs Food Banks) reports that 22% of those seeking help this year were referred because of 'low income' meaning people in jobs and that this is up 6% on the previous year.

To illustrate the point, over the weekend I found out that the retail chain Next recently changed the employment contracts of pretty much all their shop staff to just 13 hours a week apparently to reduce the amount they have to pay for national insurance. Staff who have mortgages, families, childcare costs, financial commitments and could formerly rely on a set number of hours work each week were suddenly and arbitrarily reduced to 13 hour contracts worked over 3 days each week. I am sure Next would say that staff can increase the number of hours they work to suit themselves by exchanging shifts - a system operated online. But the demand for extra hours is so great, shifts are snapped up in seconds.

I heard too that Top Shop only employ staff aged under 18 so that they only have to pay £3.79 an hour Minimum Wage instead of £5.13 for those age 18 to 20 or £6.50 for those age over 21. The Minimum Wage is the minimum employers can legally pay; the Living Wage Foundation recommend the minimum should be £7.85 an hour outside London.

At what point did it become acceptable for any employer to have such limited regard for the legitimate needs of their employees? Mahatma Gandhi listed 'Commerce without morality' amongst his 7 deadly sins:

The seven deadly sins

Mahatma Gandhi

 

Wealth without work,
Pleasure without conscience,
Knowledge without character,
Commerce without morality,
Science without humanity,
Worship without sacrifice, and
Politics without principle.

And in 'The Wealth of Nations' (1776) Adam Smith identified five moral problems created by capitalism: impoverishing the spirit of the workers, creating cities in which anonymity will facilitate price-fixing, expanding the ranks of the rich who lack virtue, inducing government to create monopolies and privileges, and separating ownership and management in ways that lead to what we now call agency problems.

Fortunately not all retailers are behaving like 19th century mill owners; I did also hear about cosmetic shop Lush who do pay their staff the Living Wage rate.

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens famous story about Scrooge was published 171 years ago but is perhaps even more relevant today than when it was written.

Scrooge, a committed miser is shown the error of his ways by four ghosts who visit him on Christmas Eve. The final spectre, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge his own deathbed, funeral and grave. Scrooge is terrified to realise he will die alone and unloved, mourned by no one, and resolves to change his ways. Throughout the story Dickens shows us that redemption comes through the joy of giving, especially charitable giving.

At the start of the story Scrooge is visited by his nephew who remarks. 'I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.'

We are one of the richest countries in the world, we are home to some of the wealthiest people who have ever lived. During the second half of the last century we became a much more equal society than in Dickens's time but today income inequality is again greater than it was 100 years ago. No matter how much you have, and how 'fair' you think you should be entitled to everything you have, nevertheless we are all mortal, all on the same journey through life.

The next scene is a visit from two gentlemen who say. 'At this festive season of the year, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts.' Adding 'Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices.' Scrooge replies that the prisons, workhouses, treadmill and Poor Law are good enough for the poor.

Today's equivalents would again be prisons, Universal Credit and Job Seekers Allowance. But also the indignity of food banks, the benefits cap, the unfairness of the bedroom tax and mean-minded immigration regulations.

Scrooge is taken by the Ghost of Christmas Present to visit the homes of many families cheerfully celebrating Christmas. Finally the Ghost reveals, 'from the foldings of its robe, it brought two children, wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable...They were a boy and girl.' Whom the Ghost calls Ignorance and Want and warns against ignorance in particular. When Scrooge asks what can be done to help them the Ghost taunts him with his own words 'Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?'

We do not see the Want in our society, we are no longer confronted by children with no shoes freezing on the winter streets. Instead the media serves up a spectacle of the poor as ignorant and lazy. We make judgements about other people's lives from the comfort of our own homes and convince ourselves that because we are fortunate to have work, family, friends, community it is somehow 'fair' that others do not.

At the end of the story Scrooge gives, not only to Tiny Tim but abundantly to all. He remembers and re-engages with the joy he felt at Christmas time when he was young and he laughs, 'really for a man who had been out or practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long line of brilliant laughs!'

In the last two weeks Children North East has witnessed abundant giving from thousands of ordinary people all over our region who have bought and donated toys, gifts, food, clothing, treats and money for cooking and heating. We have been busy distributing them all to children, young people and families in need this Christmas. The Spirit of Christmas is very much alive and well right here in north east England!

I wish you all a very Joyful and Happy Christmas.

Self medication

In the wake of Robin Williams tragic suicide has come a plethora of analysis about the nature of comic genius and mental illness as we ordinary folk try to understand why anyone would want to kill themselves. Many of the accounts of his life note his long 'battle' with alcohol and drugs, he himself made comedy from it in that famous interview with Michael Parkinson. Even there amongst the laughter, was deep darkness.

A couple of months ago I met a woman who had struggled with alcohol all her life until a perceptive Children North East family worker noticed something that changed everything. When she was referred to us Paula was drinking a litre of vodka every day and her two teenage children were at risk of being taken into care. Our worker spent a lot of time getting to know Paula and gained her trust.

Paula’s life has been very hard – three female relatives including her mother all committed suicide. All the men in her life have been aggressive and involved in violent crime. But our worker recognised something else beyond this tragic story, a pattern of elation followed by depressed mood.

She encouraged Paula’s GP to refer her for psychiatric assessment and nagged the psychiatric service until they did. Paula was diagnosed with a bipolar illness which was then treated with medication. Since her teenage years Paula had learned to ‘self-medicate’ with alcohol, now she has medication she herself recognises that she no longer needs to drink.

When I met her Paula had not drunk alcohol for 6 months, I found her to be a warm, caring mother who told me the referring social workers had decided that her children will remain with her.

12th August was the United Nations International Youth Day, the theme this year is young people and mental health.Wouldn't it be great if everyone working with young people had the understanding to recognise mental health difficulties before they become problems that ruin the whole of adult life?

Parent's Needs

Last week I posted a blog titled 'Non-Profit Zone' in which I talked about what actually helps children and young people in need of help. This list comes from the Oakland Parental Stress Service in California in 1976. It may be old but it has timeless relevance for anyone working to help parents in need.

Parent’s Needs (same as children’s needs)

1. Parents need help to feel good about themselves.
2. Parents need to be comforted when they are hurt, supported when they feel weak.
3. Parents need someone they can trust and lean on.
4. Parents need someone who will put up with their crankiness and complaining.
5. Parents need someone who will not be tricked into accepting their sense of low worth.
6. Parents need someone who will not criticise them even when they ask for it, and who will not tell them what to do or how to manage their lives.
7. Parents need someone who will be there in times of crisis.
8. Parents need someone who will help them understand their children without making them feel stupid for not having understood in the first place.
9. Parents need someone who can make them feel valuable and not someone of less value because they had to ask for help.
10. Parents need someone who can understand how hard it is for them to have dependants when they have never been allowed to be dependent themselves.

Christmas is coming - thank you Peoples Postcode Lottery players

Its December and most people are looking forward to Christmas in anticipation of fun, presents and feasting. At Children North East we are launching our annual 'Giving Tree Appeal' asking for donations of toys, clothes, gifts, food and treats for less fortunate children and young people living in our region. Last year the generous people of the north east donated over 8,000 items which we distributed in time to make a happier Christmas for so many children in need.

Imagine the children of homeless families whose Christmas wish is simply to move back to their old neighbourhood, school and friends; or the children living in a Women's Refuge torn between their desire to see Dad but also to protect Mum from Dad. Children whose Christmas will be like every other day looking after a parent sick with depression; and children whose Christmas wish will be for Mum or Dad to be able to find a job and stop arguing about money. Children North East help children in families like these all year round.

Every December we hold a Christmas Fair at our Family Centre in one of the poorest parts of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, it’s one of the many ways in which players of People's Postcode Lottery really help Children North East give disadvantaged children, young people and families a bit of hope. The families living here don't take their children into town to visit Santa's Grotto because it's too expensive, so we have our own Santa in a homemade snowy grotto with party games, Christmas food and fun.

Since 2007 People’s Postcode Lottery players have given Children North East an incredible £521,383 which has enabled us to lift the hopes of thousands of children and young people. That funding, which comes with no strings attached, is essential for our mission to give disadvantaged children and young people a better chance in life. So thank you, every one of you, everyone at Children North East and the families we support wish you a very happy Christmas.

Living Wage Week

This is a true story - Jon is in his twenties, he works full-time as a parking enforcement officer, a job he has been doing for the last 18 months. Before that he was in the Army where he served in Afghanistan. Jon lives with his partner who graduated from university in the summer and is looking for a job. They rent a small flat, their only income is Jon's wage which is the Minimum Wage for adults over the age of 21, that is £6.31 an hour for a 37 hour week. Jon earns £233.47 a week before tax (a little over £12,000 a year). Jon told me that they can barely afford to pay the rent and buy food. When bills come in they borrow from his Mam or other family members then pay them back week by week. He said it was tempting to take out a 'Pay Day' loan but he knew he could not afford the interest rate, 'in any case,' he said, 'relatives are more understanding about giving you more time to pay.'

The Living Wage has gone up this week by 20p an hour - from £7.45 to £7.65. If Jon's employer paid the Living Wage his earnings would increase by £49.58 a week to £283.05. I asked Jon what difference that would make to him. A grin spread across his face, 'Wow!' he said, 'that would make a huge difference, I wouldn't have to borrow and we might be able to have a night out occassionally.' Lastly Jon told me he and his partner would like to start a family but could not afford to on their present income.

Low paid workers are not asking for a great deal, simply the means to pay for the aspirations that anyone could reasonably expect of life in the UK in 2013.

A Better Start for Newcastle

Newcastle is one of 15 places in England shortlisted by Big Lottery to invest up to £50 million over 10 years on services for pregnant women, their partners and families with babies and toddlers up to the age of three.

Big Lottery will select up to 5 of the 15 sites for this massive injection of urgently needed money. The City Council, Children’s Services, NHS Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups, Voluntary Organisations, parents and others are working hard to produce a winning strategy which must be handed to Big Lottery by 28th February 2014. The winners will be announced in June 2014 and hopefully the money will begin to flow shortly after.

Back in March Newcastle City Council selected Children North East to lead this application. We have been working very hard with the City Council and many others since then. I am delighted that together we have got to this crucial final stage. Now we need a final big push!

Leader Nick Forbes and Joanne Kingsland, Lead Member for Children are fully behind this application; both spoke at an event in the Civic Centre on the 2nd October for parents, local services and professionals to explain Newcastle’s bid and engage them in it.

Each of the 15 shortlisted sites is receiving support from Dartington Social Research Unit (SRU) paid for by Big Lottery. Dartington SRU is based in Devon but known internationally for innovative work to improve public sector services.

Amongst the support provided by Dartington SRU is a confidential local survey by BMG Research, an independent research agency. BMG researchers are currently going door to door in Walker, Byker, Elswick, Bewnell and Scotswood wards. They want to talk to parents of children aged 0 to 8 years to find out what they think about local services for children and families, what is good and what could be better.

Dartington SRU will be running a two day workshop with the Newcastle Partnership to shape our application based on solid data about local need and the latest research about what works to ensure every baby and toddler get the best start in life.

The final applications must be submitted by 28^th February next year and the winners will be announced in June. Big Lottery say they will select between 3 and 5 sites who will each receive between £3m and £5m a year for up to 10 years to improve support during pregnancy and for parents of babies and toddlers up to the age of 3.

If you would like to know more about the Newcastle application, please email my colleague Sylvia Copley here at Children North East: sylvia.copley@children-ne.org.uk

Fulfilling Lives - A Better Start

I am delighted that our application on behalf of Newcastle City Council and partners to the Big Lottery 'Fulfilling Lives - A Better Start' programme is through to the next stage. Newcastle is one of just 15 places selected from 40 applications submitted at the beginning of June this year.

Big Lottery have commissioned Dartington Social Research Unit to work intensively with each of the 15 sites between now and 3rd January to create a partnership and develop a business plan that will give parents and babies living in challenging circumstances the best start in life. Children North East has also been awarded a development grant to help the process along. Business plans must be submitted to the Big Lottery by 3rd January who will then select 5 places which will each receive up to £5m a year for 10 years, a huge investment in pregnancy, parenting and babies.

Children North East will be leading a partnership of organisations working in the wards of Walker, Byker, Elswick, Benwell and Scotswood. In these wards 25% of pregnant women are obese; figures for low birth weight are worse than the England average; in one ward only 18% of women are still breastfeeding when their babies are 8 weeks old; Newcastle has the highest child obesity figures in the country in reception year (age 6); and the highest proportion of incidents of domestic violence in the city occur in families where a child is under one year old.

The partnership will recruit more midwives to advise obese women and those experiencing domestic violence. It will set up an online resource to prepare fathers for parenthood and train nursery nurses to support parents with new babies. Programmes will also address nutrition, smoking and alcohol consumption and advice on healthy living during pregnancy, achieving higher breastfeeding rates and improving parents skills in budgeting and preparing healthy food.

As new parents become proficient they will be invited to train as volunteer ‘doulas’ to advise and support new parents. An accredited training programme will be developed and as the number of doulas grows, an offer of doula support will be made to all new parents thus spreading the learning and impact to other parts of the city.

The next four months are going to be very exciting as we create the partnership and develop the plan, it is a fantastic opportunity for health, council and voluntary organisations in Newcastle to dramatically improve services and support for expectant Mams and Dads and their babies.

Families under Pressure

Children North East has been supporting families for over 30 years because we believe it is almost always best that children grow up in their own family unless it is unsafe to do so.

Family life can be the source of the most rewarding and also the most frustrating and difficult parts of our lives, sometimes both at the same time! When you think about what makes a family it is not surprising that all families are complicated.

You grow up and become a person. You meet someone and become a partner. You are in a relationship, most people want that. Then the two of you have a baby and you become parents. You have gone from having one to three roles – person, partner and parent. And also the number of relationships in the family has tripled, not just one relationship between you and your partner but also now between you and the baby and between your partner and the baby – three relationships. Add another child and the number of relationships in the family doubles to six – the first three plus you and your partner's relationships with the new child and the relationship between the two children. Add a third child and the number of relationships in the family jumps to ten. That is a lot to handle even when everything is going well.

Every relationship goes both ways. Parents respond to what children need but equally children respond to and shape what parents do. That’s why we coo to babies but talk to children when they start to use words. The most remarkable thing about families is that they are constantly adapting to the needs of each individual. Babies and young children rely utterly on the parent but they also worry when parents are upset, ill or under stress. And of course adults respond to each other too.

Blended families incorporating children from previous relationships add to the complexity, bringing with them continuing relationships with previous partners. And families rarely exist in isolation; there are grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. You continue to have roles in relation to them – child and sibling to add to your other three roles.

There are stressful times in every family for example when someone is ill or experiencing change such as starting school or changing job. There can be stresses on the whole family too like moving house or a drop in income. Some tensions like school exams are short-lived; others like adolescence are to be expected; then there are unusual or long-lasting pressures such as chronic illness or disability. Each person in the family will respond to stress in different ways which has a knock-on effect on everyone else in the family.

Sometimes families under stress need a helping hand which is where Children North East comes in. We are never 'friends', we don’t take the place of partners or extended family; and we don’t step in and take over; instead we help adults with their parent role. Most people find it easier to accept help from another parent – one of our specially trained volunteers.

But when parents are really under pressure something has to give. Stress can become depression or other mental ill health; tension and constant worry can become aggression or even violence; the odd glass of wine can gradually become solace in drink or drugs.

Families really are under financial pressure right now, we are finding families are frequently in need of food; our projects now keep supplies and refer parents to the Food Banks that have sprung up everywhere. More young people are telling us about suicidal thoughts, are self-harming and attempting to kill themselves.

Stress is clearly mounting up for families and vulnerable young people and there is little hope of significant improvement in the near future.

Absolute poverty

Last weekend an 80 year old man told me about growing up in Middlebrough in the 1930s. He was one of 8 children, his father worked but was often unwell. If his father could not work the family had no money, there was no social security to fall back on, they had to go without. Even when he was working there was barely enough money to feed the family. Most weeks they took the father's suit to the pawnbroker in exchange for money to buy food. When the father was paid the first call was to the pawnbroker to redeem the suit ready for the next time. His father only ever had the same one suit. The family depended on their wits and especially their mother's skill and ingenuity to be clothed and fed. This, he said was what real poverty was like. He understood today there are not enough jobs to go round and people struggle but they have the safety net of welfare benefits.

Yesterday a report by Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam reported more than half a million UK people may rely on food banks. It calls the amount of food poverty in the UK a national disgrace.

The report blames benefit cuts, unemployment and the increased cost of living for the growth in hunger and poverty. It attributes some of the rise in food bank reliance to unemployment, increasing levels of underemployment, low and falling income, and rising food and fuel prices. Oxfam says: "Cuts to social safety-nets have gone too far, leading to destitution, hardship and hunger."

The report was backed by the Trussell Trust, the UK's biggest provider of food banks. It said

more than 350,000 people required help from its food banks during 2012, almost triple the number who received food aid the year before. Children North East is finding that the families we work with are increasingly in need of food, we keep small stocks but refer people to the rising number of food banks.

Does anyone want to live in a country where people are reliant on handouts of food? Do we really want to return to the hardships of the past?

Responding to the report the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) said: "Our welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities."

It added, "The benefits system supports millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed so no-one has to struggle to meet their basic needs." The department also defended its new universal credit system, which will be implemented nationally in October, saying it will simplify the benefit system and leave "three million households better off".

Yesterday Jayne Linney of the #STOPIDSLYING campaign announced on Twitter that her petition calling for Ian Duncan-Smith the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to be held to account for his use of statistics had been successful, she got over 100,000 signatures. He has been summoned to apprear in June before the Work and Pensions Committee.

John Lennon once sang:

'I've had enough of reading things

By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians

All I want is the truth

Just gimme some truth.'

I know who I believe - who do you?

Young Carers

Figures published today show there are 244,000 young people under 19 caring for a parent or sibling; 23,000 are younger than 9 years. The data is published by the Office for National Statistics and comes from the 2011 census.

A young carer is someone who is regularly cleaning, cooking, shopping, checking medication, helping with personal care, interpreting or paying bills on behalf of a parent. About a quarter are looking after a parent with a physical disability, another quarter have a parent with mental ill-health. One fifth help care for a disabled sibling.

Children look after sick parents or disabled siblings because they are part of the family and family members look after each other. However for some the responsibilities become too heavy and long term. Young carers may need to be home soon after school so miss out on activities their peers take for granted like play, sports leisure activities and just friendships. They may have limited time for homework so school work can suffer leading to poorer exam results and limited opportunities.

Most council areas have a young carers project often run by a voluntary organisation. Young carers say they need to be recognised especially by their teachers; they need information about services that can help the person they are caring for; someone to talk to when things get tough and chances to have a break and chill out.

However the real issue is identifying who the young carers are, councils having been trying to crack that problem for over 20 years since they first realised some children were looking after their parents. The doctors or care workers that the parent sees do not ask who looks after them at home; teachers, playworkers and youth workers tend not to enquire about the home life of children or young people either. And it doesn't seem fair to expect young carers or parents to identify themselves as 'young carers' many will simply see it as part of their family life.

A lot of effort goes in to training all those professionals to be aware of young carers, to sensitively enquire if a child or young person is caring for someone else, and to know who to put the young person in touch with if they are a young carer.

Children North East does not run any projects specifically for young carers but when we do come across them in our work with families, we always put them in touch with local projects that can help them. And with their permission, we will tactfully inform the school about home life and request that they make adjustments for the young carer.

Digital stories

Have you ever seen yourself on a cinema screen? Imagine what a thrill it would be to see yourself so large; so different to a usual size photograph even on a computer or TV. That's what happened for 9 young people, their families and friends on Thursday this week at the Tyneside Cinema www.tynesidecinema.co.uk

It was the culmination, in fact the World Premier of a joint project between Children North East and digital story maker Alex Henry who is also known as Creative Curiosity funded by a grant from Newcastle City Council's 'Make Your Mark' programme for Scotswood and Benwell.

Alex helps people make and record their own story using computer technology. She worked with local children, young people and parents from Benwell and Scotswood and Sara Bryson from Children North East at our Head Office in Benwell.

They started by sharing their likes, dislikes, hopes, what they love and dislike, gradually getting to know each other. Next each decided the story they wanted to tell and with help from Alex and support from each other planned how to tell it, write it down, select or make pictures to illustrate it and finally put it all together using a computer. The result was 9 short original picture shows that are funny, quirky, poignant stories about real life in Benwell and Scotswood today.

You can see these stories too online. Samir takes us on a tour of Benwell today and reflects on the past in 'That's Benwell' and Darren describes the 'degeneration' of Scotswood in 'My Story'. Cain, Naomi and Darren tell us about their family, each in their own way in 'My Family' 'Home Sweet Home' and 'My Family Circus'.

'Tilly and Mitsy's Express' is Molly's story of her dog while Ubayed reveals a little known corner of school life in 'Are You Selling'.

The last two stories are about the future, Ryan tells about his ambition to set up a greengrocers and cafe using locally grown fruit and veg in 'Freshly Cuttings' and Shuayb explains why he is looking forward to the Islamic School opening at 'The Mitre (Benwell Towers)' and hopes the whole community will welcome it.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this project which gave them a unique opportunity. They were so pleased, proud (and a bit shocked) to see their work on the big screen in a proper cinema with their families and friends. Some of the children are inspired to do more, their experience of this project has made them feel that is achievable.

The stories will be offered to Tyne and Wear Museums to be included in the archive of Benwell and Scotswood.

Lifestyle choices, welfare reforms and child poverty

Politicians sometimes get lucky breaks, David Cameron, George Osbourne et al must have been delighted with the outcome of the Mick and Mairead Philpott trial at the exact moment when the Coalition's Welfare Reforms begin to bite. They have capitalised on the story by repeatedly telling us that 'for some' living off benefits is a 'lifestyle choice'. There have been repeats of Anne Widdecombe's visits to the Philpott's home when she commented on the consumer goods they owned; and repeats too of Mick Philpott appearing on the Jeremy Kyle show. The Philpotts have been depicted as the epitome of real life 'Shameless' skivers. Politicians get away with this because, as they say themselves, the public believes a great many people do chose to live off benefits; they believe that benefits are generous and that people can live comfortably and never have to work.

There are no official records but it is thought there are fewer than 12 families of 10 or more children living off benefits in the whole of the UK. Only 2% of all single mothers are teenagers and 59% of all single mothers work at least part-time. The total cost of welfare benefits and state pensions is about £205 billion but at least 60% of it (depending on how you calculate it) is spent on retired people. There have been calls for Ian Duncan-Smith to demonstrate he could live on £53 a week, the real level of out-of-work benefits for a single person; inflation is 2.7%, people with low incomes spend proportionally more on food, heating and transport which are all rising faster than that, so the 1% cap is in fact really a cut. Less than 1% (about £2 billion) of the total welfare budget is lost to fraud, by contrast tax avoidance and evasion is estimated to be about £120 billion.

Politicians have carefully avoided talking about poverty this week, the discussion has been about welfare reform and fairness instead. I wonder if this is a tacit recognition that the public now realise that lots of people are in work but are still poor - over 66% of poor children live in working families. The public is well aware that most 'hard-working families' have not had pay increases for several years; and that food, heating and transport are all much more expensive. If politicians have realised this then perhaps the way is clear for a proper public debate about poverty, jobs and wages unhindered by myths about benefits claimant lifestyles.

Children North East will help to bring children and young people's experiences and views to such a debate. We have recently received a small grant from the Webb Memorial Trust to develop Hopebook – a social media platform about child poverty for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty. The MPs see Hopebook as a vehicle for getting voices of the most dispossessed children in society into the committee’s debates and for involving children and young people across the country in discussing poverty. We will be working on this closely with young people, Newcastle Live Theatre and the digital team who developed Hopebook which won the Culture Code hack in Newcastle last summer. Take a look at this preview of Hopebook: http://adayofhope.co.uk/intro.

Breadline Britain

You may have seen 'Breadline Britian' on ITV last night, or watch it here if you missed it: ITV programme 'Breadline Britain'

The programme discussed a report by the Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) Unit at Bristol University (and others) published yesterday (see: www.poverty.ac.uk). It repeats research originally conducted in 1983 and repeated several times since, most recently in 2012. This is the longest running research into poverty in the UK. It is based on surveys of what the general public think is 'essential' in today's society and compares that to the numbers of people who are not able to afford those things and have to go without.

The UK economy has doubled in the 30 years since 1983 but those at the bottom of society and their children have been increasingly left behind. Things are likely to worsen further with the introduction of more austerity measures next week - increased social housing rent due to the 'bedroom tax'; reduction and  transfer of Council Tax allowances to local authorities which means more people will be required to pay Council Tax; Social Fund also transfered to local authorities who are replacing it with food vouchers; limiting maximum benefit entitlement to £500 a week; abolition of Disabled Living Allowance and so on.

Sadly we at Children North East are not surprised by the findings of this research because they reflect what children and young people told us during our work about child poverty from children’s perspectives in every part of the north east during 2011.

Children and young people said the biggest problems were damp, hard to heat, overcrowded homes; this report has found 9% of all households cannot afford to heat their homes and 10% live in damp homes. The general public regard good accommodation as the most important essential of modern life.

Children and young people told us it was hard to obtain or afford fresh food and many families could not afford to replace broken household appliances. This report has found 4% of all children and 8% of all adults cannot afford to eat properly; and 26% of adults cannot afford to replace or repair broken electrical goods.

The PSE report also found significant numbers of children lack things considered essential to do well in school such as a computer with internet access at home and to be able to afford school trips. Whilst it is appalling that these things happen in what is still a exceptionally wealthy country - the 7th richest in the world - it is not enough to just moan, Children North East is doing what we can to improve things for children and young people. This month we have been piloting our audit tool for schools to assess how well they include poor children and how to improve, we expect to have this ready for dissemination by the summer along with training for teachers about the impact of poverty on children’s lives.

Is the tide turning on public opinion about poverty?

Politicians are not stupid, they echo back to the public what the public is thinking. If the public thinks benefit claimants are scroungers or the poor have only themselves to blame, politicians will say those things. But what if public opinion about poverty is changing, what then? In the last few weeks I have noticed small signs that the tide of public opinion may be changing for example:

The new Archbishop of Canterbury has joined more than 40 Church of England Bishops in an open letter to the Government criticising its Benefits Uprating Bill as an attack on the poorest especially children whom they say we all have a moral responsibility to protect.

Vince Cable MP on BBC Question Time from St. Paul's Cathedral on 21st February, in answer to a question about a single mother with numerous children housed in a very large house, said although the woman in question may have behaved irresponsibly nevertheless what should a decent society do? We cannot allow children to be living on the streets. Michael Heseltine, another panelist agreed, on another question regarding inequality - the huge disparity between rich and poor - the balance of audience and panelists was against further penalising the poor. The mood was the same in Gloucester during the BBC Radio 4 Any Questions debate the following day.

Last Saturday in her regular column in The Times magazine Caitlin Moran wrote movingly about the poor, making serious points about human dignity, living lightly on the earth and a convincing case for giving the poor more money to stimulate the economy.

I have the feeling that the public no longer believe the caricature of 'skivers vs strivers'. Almost everyone is feeling the pinch and most people know someone - a friend, neighbour, relative who has lost their job, or is having to work fewer hours or is under the threat or redundancy, we know they are not 'skivers' but they are in hardship. There is a growing awareness that most people who are poor are actually in work and the so-called 'culture of worklessness' is much more about available jobs and decent wages than personal fecklessness.

I sense too there is growing unease about the bedroom tax and not just from those who may be affected. People seem to be asking can it really be right that in our country people might be forced to move from their established family home, uprooted from everyone they know - neighbours, relatives, friends, schools, GP, local shops - everything that is familiar, for the simple reason they have an empty bedroom?

Here in the North East last week a Housing Company hosted a conference of tenants and others to discuss the bedroom tax. They wanted to point out that for decades we have been building 3 bedroom family homes,  there are very few 2 or even 1 bedroom properties. Where are people supposed to move to? If they are forced to move we could end up with hundreds of vacant 3 and 4 bedroom properties with no-one to fill them. What sort of sense does that make?

What next for Newcastle services?

Yesterday evening Newcastle City Council agreed their controversial budget proposals during a long, difficult Council meeting. The proposals mean reductions and in some cases ceasing Council services altogether. The Council also pays a lot of other organisations (especially the voluntary sector) to provide services through grants and contracts. The people of Newcastle and those who support them will have to get used to there being less help available. But what exactly will no longer be there, what alternatives are there (if any) and how can people find out where to go for help?

Children North East is in daily contact with families and young people who looking for help with a daunting range of difficulties - everything from domestic violence, childcare, accommodation, mental health, sexual health, drug and alcohol abuse, managing children's behaviour and so on. We always provide help and advice but we are not experts about everything and frequently help people to make use of other services. It is surprisingly difficult to know where to find the help you need and our staff know a lot about other services and often help people to make that first step over the threshold into an unfamiliar service.

We all have our pride, it's hard to admit we need help and it takes courage to take that step and ask, and we don't always know who to ask about any particular problem. Which is why it is so important that there is good information about the services available and that we get an encouraging response when we do ask.

In common with every other Local Authority, Newcastle City Council has an online Families Information Service where you can find out about local services (not just Council run services). It should be an urgent task for the City Council to update this online directory not only for families and young people but also for people (like Children North East staff) who are trying to help them.

At the same time I urge Newcastle City Council with its public sector and voluntary sector partners (i.e. Newcastle Council of Voluntary Service) to 'map' all the present services available for families, children and young people in the City - what they are called, where they are, what they do, when they are open, and crucially how long they will continue to be available. This will enable everyone to know what is being lost so we can plan how to fill some of the gaps.